Talking Back

In Paul's epistle to Rome he asks, "Who are you, O man, to answer back to God?" (Rom 9:20) An ominous question, one that should give us all pause. "Do I do that?" Because, as it turns out, I think we do.

In the book of Job, Job's friends were explaining his need to repent. Elihu said, "Who has said, 'You have done wrong'?" (Job 36:23) In other words, "Who can accuse God of doing wrong?" It seems like we regularly do that. If we were honest, we would all raise our hand and say, "I do that. I have accused God of doing wrong." He didn't act when we needed Him to. He didn't do what we asked Him to. Unanswered prayers, tragedies, illnesses, sorrow, great loss ... we've all experienced things that cause us to ask, "Why, God?", and usually not in a good way.

In the book of Daniel Nebuchadnezzar was restored to sanity and recognized the hand of God and exalted Him. In his praise he states, "None can stay His hand or say to Him, 'What have You done?'" (Dan 4:35) And we often answer back, "Yes, I can." Most of us at some point or another are quite certain that we have the capacity to block God's hand. We believe that God intended to save Bill (fictitious placeholder name) but I failed to share the gospel with him so God couldn't. We believe that God intended to do something good but I lacked the faith and He couldn't do it. Many will say that when Jesus said, "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand" (John 10:28) that "I can. I am that 'no one' who can snatch me out of His hand."

The most obvious answer-back that we do, of course, is our simple "No." "Love God with all your being." "No." "Love your neighbor as yourself." "No." "Give up all your possessions and follow Me." "No." "Don't be anxious about anything but pray about everything." "No." "Pray without ceasing." "I already said no."

Paul's question about answering back to God was a rhetorical one. No one gets to answer back to God. As such, it was intended to be an ominous question. "If you do answer back, be afraid. It isn't a good thing." You can sense the warning in the question. We often ignore it in our lives. So we blithely challenge God right and left and can't figure out why we're not growing in our relationship with Him. Perhaps we're challenging the wrong God. Perhaps we ought to challenge the gods we think we are.